Augustine’s On the Free Choice of the Will
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Contents:
Image: Augustine, by Sandro Botticelli |
On Augustine (354-430 C.E.):
Childhood: He was born and first studied at Thagaste, a municipality now in Algeria (then under Roman rule), to become public official like his father, Patricius. Monica, his mother, was Christian and provided his mild exposure to Christ, while his father was Pagan. In his infancy, he determined that words are signs of things, we speak so that our will might be obeyed. The adult Augustine begs that the innocent errors of children should be corrected; as example of such an error, he remarks that he preferred God’s creatures to God. We also learn that he preferred grammar to literature.
At 11 yrs old (ca. 365-369), he was sent to Madauras to continue his studies (ars gammatica, read Greek history and myth, Pagan authors), and admits that he loved the Latin classics, especially Virgil, but was quite turned off by the Greeks. 16 yrs: Back in Thagaste; Steals pears from tree although did not desire to eat them, only to steal them, sin out of lust; Defines sin as liking things least good and turning from things of greatest good, god. People do not sin for the sake of sin but for some end—although this is questionable since what was his end with the pears? Sinning as perverse imitation of God; Sin proves God is the creator; evil done by free will, avoidance of evil by God’s grace.
By 18 yrs. old (ca. 370), Augustine reports that he loved theatrical shows, questioned why people find pleasure in feeling sorrow while watching tragedy. As a student of rhetoric at Carthage, he reads Cicero’s Hortensius (only fragments of this work survive) and was greatly moved and inspired by its wisdom. This is his first conversion, in a sense, one to philosophy. Philosophy, for Augustine, was whole pursuit of wisdom, and his obsession with the question of evil was a personal and very visceral question about how to best live one’s life. Sometime around this period he began a 13-year monogamous relationship with a woman who gave him his son, Adeodatus (born 372). However, he still questions why Christ is missing in Cicero; he reads the Scriptures, but is unconvinced, finds them simple, too humble. Monica, his mother, dreams he will find his path and she ought to direct him.
From 19-28 yrs. old (ca.371-380), Augustine becomes Manichean (remains one for nine to 15 yrs., depending upon interpretation): they argue Scriptures not edifying, thus, one must follow reason. Taught rhetoric in Thagaste and Carthage and had child, wrote books on beauty/fitting or whole and part; tries to understand God as a body. Begins to doubt Manichaeism b/c it cannot be reconciled with astronomy.
At 11 yrs old (ca. 365-369), he was sent to Madauras to continue his studies (ars gammatica, read Greek history and myth, Pagan authors), and admits that he loved the Latin classics, especially Virgil, but was quite turned off by the Greeks. 16 yrs: Back in Thagaste; Steals pears from tree although did not desire to eat them, only to steal them, sin out of lust; Defines sin as liking things least good and turning from things of greatest good, god. People do not sin for the sake of sin but for some end—although this is questionable since what was his end with the pears? Sinning as perverse imitation of God; Sin proves God is the creator; evil done by free will, avoidance of evil by God’s grace.
By 18 yrs. old (ca. 370), Augustine reports that he loved theatrical shows, questioned why people find pleasure in feeling sorrow while watching tragedy. As a student of rhetoric at Carthage, he reads Cicero’s Hortensius (only fragments of this work survive) and was greatly moved and inspired by its wisdom. This is his first conversion, in a sense, one to philosophy. Philosophy, for Augustine, was whole pursuit of wisdom, and his obsession with the question of evil was a personal and very visceral question about how to best live one’s life. Sometime around this period he began a 13-year monogamous relationship with a woman who gave him his son, Adeodatus (born 372). However, he still questions why Christ is missing in Cicero; he reads the Scriptures, but is unconvinced, finds them simple, too humble. Monica, his mother, dreams he will find his path and she ought to direct him.
From 19-28 yrs. old (ca.371-380), Augustine becomes Manichean (remains one for nine to 15 yrs., depending upon interpretation): they argue Scriptures not edifying, thus, one must follow reason. Taught rhetoric in Thagaste and Carthage and had child, wrote books on beauty/fitting or whole and part; tries to understand God as a body. Begins to doubt Manichaeism b/c it cannot be reconciled with astronomy.
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“I presented my arguments against these men [the Manicheans] … it was impossible to bring up the authority of Sacred Writ in opposition to such perversion … By means of irrefutable argumentation (which I actually accomplished without direct appeal to the truth of any part of the Holy Writ) I showed that God should be praised for all things, and that there are no grounds at all for their belief that there exists two co-eternal natures, one good, one evil …” --Augustine, De dono perseverantiae 6. |
Thus, at 29 yrs. old and up (ca. 381 and following), Augustine takes a teaching position in Rome (a risky journey seeking the ‘better’ students rumored to be there) and was there exposed to skepticism; his students, while he found them somewhat better, they had the habit of refusing to pay for lessons, and so he leaves Rome. He moves to Milan: encounters St. Ambrose and Neoplatonism (namely in the vein of Plotinus). He learns four things from Ambrose: 1-Scriptures need not be literal, 2-spiritual reality has nothing to do with matter, 3-evil was nothing, a privation, 4-moral evil from free will (not an evil principle). However, he cannot lose his skepticism as he sees Catholicism and Manichaeism as equally probable.
Eventually, however, he loses his skepticism by coming to answers to the questions of evil (determines it as a lack, not a substance). He proclaimed that his mind was ready to convert, but not his will because of his desire for his mistress. Either for this reason, or, because during this time he was encouraged to consider an arranged marriage, he separated from his mistress and son. He abruptly resigned his teaching post (386) and renounced his academic ambitions.
He then hears two stories: 1st) Victorinus’ conversion—an African rhetor converted to Christianity; 2nd) two court attendants meet ascetics, read St. Anthony, and convert on the spot. Augustine then reads Paul (which aids his complete separation from the mistress and from all sexual relations). One day, then, he hears a child’s voice in a garden and interprets it as a command from God. He converts to Christianity.
He completely abandons rhetoric, yet spends four months at Cassiciacum writing his earliest works that survive. His son, Adeodatus, dies at age 17. Augustine baptized by Bishop Ambrose on Easter Sunday in 387 at 33 years old. He then moves, in the Confessions, to recall his life and reflect upon the death of his mother Monica at Ostia, outside of Rome. Augustine then returns to Thagaste. In 391, he was ordained as a priest in Hippo; in 395, he was made Bishop. He died there in Hippo in August of 430 (just as Vandals were attacking the gates of the city).
On Augustine’s Philosophy:
Augustine left us an enormous amount of writing—over 100 works, over 200 letters, and nearly 400 sermons. In addition to his Confessions (397-401), some of his most notable writings include: Contra Academicos [Against the Academicians, 386-7], De Libero Arbitrio [On the Free Choice of the Will, written over a long period, ca. 387-95], De Magistro [On the Teacher, 389], and De Civitate Dei [On the City of God, 413-27].
Perhaps the most important philosophical issue he tackles is the problem of evil.
The problem arises from the conflicts that come from three of God’s most essential attributes:
Specifically, the conflict comes from the questions that thus follow: If God is all-good, and evil exists, and he neither is nor does evil, how can he know evil? If God is all-good, and evil exists, and he neither is nor does evil, then how can he be all-powerful?
Further, God’s omnipotence determines him to be the creator of everything. However, God is also absolutely good; so, if he created everything, than he must have created evil, but if he is all-good, then he cannot have created evil. Therefore, since there is evil in the world, either God did not create it, thus not all-powerful, or he did create evil and he is thus not all good.
Thus, how can evil have come to be and still exist in the world without diminishing God?
This problem drives Augustine’s long and torturous path to religious conversion, as seen in his Confessions, and is the central reason for his dialogue On Free Choice of the Will with his student Evodius.
Perhaps the most important philosophical issue he tackles is the problem of evil.
The problem arises from the conflicts that come from three of God’s most essential attributes:
- God is:
- omniscient (sees/knows all),
- omnipotent (all-powerful), and
- omnibenevolent (all-good).
- omniscient (sees/knows all),
Specifically, the conflict comes from the questions that thus follow: If God is all-good, and evil exists, and he neither is nor does evil, how can he know evil? If God is all-good, and evil exists, and he neither is nor does evil, then how can he be all-powerful?
Further, God’s omnipotence determines him to be the creator of everything. However, God is also absolutely good; so, if he created everything, than he must have created evil, but if he is all-good, then he cannot have created evil. Therefore, since there is evil in the world, either God did not create it, thus not all-powerful, or he did create evil and he is thus not all good.
Thus, how can evil have come to be and still exist in the world without diminishing God?
This problem drives Augustine’s long and torturous path to religious conversion, as seen in his Confessions, and is the central reason for his dialogue On Free Choice of the Will with his student Evodius.
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“[Augustine:] … do you think there is anything more excellent than a rational and wise mind? [Evodius answers:] Nothing, I think, except God. [Augustine:] This is my opinion too. But though we accept this with the strongest faith, understanding it is a very difficult matter ..."
--Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will. |
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On Free Choice of the Will:
Book I: Introductory Textual Questions:
- What are the two senses of evil?
- Is God the cause of our doing evil?
- Is God just when he punishes evil doing?
- Why is adultery or homicide evil?
- What is the cause of our doing evil (I, 1, p.1; 11, p.17)?
- Is evil learned?
- What is lust?
- Is lust different from fear?
- How is the wish to live without fear different for good and evil people?
- Is an unjust law still a law (I, 5, p.8)? But, why are many condemned for just deeds (I, 3, p.5)?
- What are the differences between human law (temporal law) and eternal law (divine law)?
- How ought law operate in good versus evil nations?
- How do we know eternal law?
- How and why is it one thing to live and another to know that you live (I, 7, p.12)?
- Why can knowledge not be evil?
- Why can the virtuous mind not be seduced (I, 7, p.13; 10, p.16)?
- What is the well-ordered soul (I, 8, pp.14-5)?
- What is good will (I, 12, p.19)?
- What are the four Cardinal Virtues and how do they relate to the type of life one leads (I, 13, pp.20-1)?
- What is required, beyond willing happiness, to live the happy life (I, 14, p.23)?
- How does willing the good and living the happy life relate to the two laws (I, 15, pp.24-5)?
- How does temporal law punish (I, 15, p.26)?
Book I: Summary of Integral Issues:
God is not the cause of evil; humans are when they lack learning and understanding of the Good.
Evil is not learned. Evil is the privation of Good, thus, nothing.
The Source of Evil is Lust (Libido—the result of the Fall).
Lust is:
The Four Cardinal Virtues:
Happiness—desired by all but achieved through willing and having the four virtues.
Unhappiness—stems from lust after temporal things as opposed to eternal things.
Temporal Law: rules over unhappy; distributive justice; enforced by fear.
Eternal Law: rules over happy; commands us to turn away from temporal.
God is not the cause of evil; humans are when they lack learning and understanding of the Good.
Evil is not learned. Evil is the privation of Good, thus, nothing.
The Source of Evil is Lust (Libido—the result of the Fall).
Lust is:
- 1—Love of bodily/physical things one can lose against one’s will.
- 2—Desire, lust as disorder when inferior disobeys superior.
- 3—The appetite of the soul by which temporal things are preferred to eternal things.
The Four Cardinal Virtues:
- Prudence--knowledge of what should be desired and what should be avoided.
- Fortitude--condition of the soul by which we despise hardships and losses of what we don’t control.
- Temperance—checks and controls the desire for base things.
- Justice—according to which all receive their due; one with Good Will will embrace Justice and be happy—it encompasses the other virtues.
Happiness—desired by all but achieved through willing and having the four virtues.
Unhappiness—stems from lust after temporal things as opposed to eternal things.
Temporal Law: rules over unhappy; distributive justice; enforced by fear.
Eternal Law: rules over happy; commands us to turn away from temporal.
Book I: Textual Analysis
(Chapters denoted by marginal numbers in text)
Ch. 1: Is God the Cause of Evil?
Summary:
- God is good, does not do evil.
- God is just; He rewards good and punishes evil.
- Punishments are evil to those who suffer them, but are not unjust.
- Thus, God causes the evil punishments, but this is just because God does not cause the evil that we do.
- Evil is not learned since it is the privation of good and it is nothing.
- God cannot be the cause of evil but humans are when they lack learning and understanding of the good.
Miscellaneous Note:
- Note the differentiation in chapters one and two concerning knowledge and belief: it first rises in Augustine’s second comment (“But if you know or believe that God is good …” (I, 1, p.1)), wherein we see a belief can be rightly held even if one does not yet know it. The second main citation is in the second chapter, when Augustine quotes Isaiah 7:9 (“Unless you believe, you will not understand”). See the “Faith and Reason” discussion, below, at the end.
Ch. 2. What Must be Believed about God?
Is not God at least indirectly responsible for humans doing evil since he created them? He agrees to examine the problem of evil while accepting by faith that God is not it source.
Everything that exists is from God, but God is not the cause of sin.
Ch.3. Inordinate Desire / Lust is the Source of Evil:
What is the cause of evil? Augustine asks Evodius about what is evil doing, and prompts him to list some deeds that he knows takes to be evil. Evodius names adultery, murder, sacrilege, and then says there are many more. Augustine takes up adultery and pushes Evodius to say why … how is it that he knows it to be evil? They consider three reasons before settling on a fourth one:
- (1) Adultery is not evil because the law forbids it,
- (2) nor because people punish it,
- (3) nor because people should not want for others what they do not want for themselves (note: this involves a posting of the Golden Rule and Augustine’s revelation of its flaw);
- (4) instead, adultery is evil because of lust (libido) and so are all evil deeds.
Inordinate desire/Lust is the source/cause of evil. Thinking and doing an evil deed both involve lust and are equally sinful.
Libido is a result of the fall not as a punishment but as an automatic result of the act of disobedience. Definitions of Libido:
- 1) Love of the things one can lose against his will (Bk.I, Ch.4)—only bodily/physical things, not spiritual; spiritual/mental things cannot be taken by force.
- 2) Desire—implies that lust is a disorder since the inferior disobeys the superior.
- 3) The appetite of the soul by which temporal things are preferred to eternal things—We feel shame when we desire sexual intercourse since the higher parts are disobeyed by the lower ones and they are embarrassed. Shame is universal for humans. But procreation is not evil as the Manicheans thought since it produced more matter and matter is evil.
Ch.4. What of Certain Crimes Committed out of Fear? What is an Evil Desire?
Inordinate Desire/Lust [libido] = Cupidity/Desire [cupiditas]. Desire ¹ fear. Desire seeks; fear avoids. Deeds committed out of fear are not evil, so fear is not a source of evil as lust is. Fear is to avoid X so one does Y; lust or desire is pursuing something actively. In every evil deed, lust is the dominant factor; yet, one who desires to live without fear does not have an evil desire, yet, to wish to live without fear is the desire of both good and evil people. The difference is that the good seek it by turning desire away from things that cannot be possessed without the fear of losing them. Evil people try to live without fear by removing obstacles so they may safely rest in these sorts of things. Lust/Libido is love of things one can lose against his will.
Ch.5. What of the Legal Killing of Criminals?
Evodius suggests that perhaps just human laws are really unjust in the framework of divine providence: E—How defend a person who kills even if s/he kills without lust? A—Why defend when no law accuses? E—What about God’s law? How, before divine providence) are these people free of sin when their hands are still bloody? Maybe they are innocent among humans, but guilty before God…? A—A sublime answer, but wrong. Augustine counters this position by saying that the punishment of criminals and self-defense are not evil.
Ch.6. Eternal Law & Human Law:
The Laws put into writing help people. People and nations change.
If a nation is well ordered, it ought to allow its citizens elect magistrates—be democratic. If the nation is not well ordered, but taken over by corruption and the like, then it ought to be controlled by a tyranny. So temporal laws can change justly as nations and people change. The eternal law, however, cannot be changed. The eternal law is impressed on people’s minds (think of Plato’s forms); it is that law by which it is just that everything be ordered in the highest degree. Just human laws are derived from eternal laws. Justice is order in the highest degree.
Ch.7. Eternal Law and the Highest Ordering if Human Life. Living and Knowing that one is alive:
It is one thing to live and another to know that you live. Therefore, humans have reason, whereas animals do not, yet there are senses that we share. Knowledge of life is more excellent than life alone. Knowledge cannot be evil. The consequence of this discussion is that there is in nature, an order of beings, a hierarchy, since there are higher and lower things.
Ch.8. Reason should be Master in human Life:
Reason should rule the other parts. Beasts and humans both pursue pleasure and avoid pain but this is not the highest activity of man. When reason rules desires and emotions this is in accordance with eternal law, which is the highest order.--eternal law commands us to use reason--
Ch. 9. What distinguishes the Wise from the Foolish?
The wise person is the one in whom reason rules and the foolish person is the one in whom reason does not rule. Superiority not in body, but in spirit. Reason and mind can be interchangeable, only the mind can use reason, and reason cannot be without mind. But, mind can be present in a person and that person not be rational, or wise.
Ch. 10. No one can force the Soul to be a slave to lust:
The virtuous mind cannot be forced to lust since it is stronger, armed with virtue. The Just cannot force another to be a slave to lust b/c it would weaken itself, corrupt itself, and not be strong enough to seduce the other. The superior always rules over the inferior or the weak because it is the perfection of the universe that forbids the weaker from ruling the stronger. We prefer virtue to vice, and the stronger the virtue the more noble it is.
Ch.11 and 12. A Soul merits Punishment when it Voluntarily submits to Lust: & The Lustful Suffer in the Present Life:
Whatever is equal or superior to the mind (ordered mind) is just so it cannot make the mind subject to lust so it follows that being lustful is due to free choice of the will. So punishment for sins is both just and justified since one is responsible for his actions since he has free will. Lustful people suffer in this life justly by having weariness and angst—long description on margin pages 77-78. Augustine establishes that there is free will since some people have their reason rule and cannot be forced to lust and others have their emotions and appetites ruling and are lustful. Since we can choose between good (rule of reason) and evil (lust) we have a will. And we must use this will to choose the good.
Ch.13. It is by Willing that we Live a Happy or an Unhappy Life:
It is by willing that we live a happy life by having the four cardinal virtues or live the unhappy life. Happy man is the lover of good will and who rejoices in true and sure goods. (A happy person is a wise person and the one who loves good will, so a wise person who has all the virtues loves good will).
The Four Cardinal Virtues:
The one with the GOOD WILL will embrace JUSTICE as if there was nothing better, take delight in it, and be happy, because it can be thought of as encompassing the other virtues. A man cannot be just and be contrary to the others.
It is, however, a curious notion of justice, for Augustine says that Justice, like a mental or spiritual quality, cannot be taken away from a person against his or her will (I, 13)… Can we not rob a Just person of Justice? What sort of Justice must this be for this statement to be true?
Ch.14. Why are so few Men Happy when all want to be?
What does the temporal law command? What does the eternal law command? How do the domains of these laws relate to our personal happiness or unhappiness?
Notice the Platonic influence here—All desire the Happy Life, and it is by WILL that we merit a happy or unhappy life. No one KNOWINGLY wills unhappiness, but many are in a state of will where unhappiness results even though they do not want it. Thus, all people desire to be happy but most are unhappy since they do not will to live rightly.
Ch.15. The Love of Temporal things and the Love of eternal things.
Unhappiness stems from the lust after temporal things. —Compare with 13 on Justice and Freedom--
What sort of conception of JUSTICE does Augustine have?
What sort of conception of FREEDOM does Augustine have?
--True freedom is for the Happy only, but there is a lesser freedom for the unhappy (ch.15).
The temporal law rules over those who are unhappy (although they are also subject to the eternal law) and the eternal law rules over those who are happy (they do not need to be ruled by the temporal law since they are already of good will) (ch.15).
It is one thing to live and another to know that you live. Therefore, humans have reason, whereas animals do not, yet there are senses that we share. Knowledge of life is more excellent than life alone. Knowledge cannot be evil. The consequence of this discussion is that there is in nature, an order of beings, a hierarchy, since there are higher and lower things.
Ch.8. Reason should be Master in human Life:
Reason should rule the other parts. Beasts and humans both pursue pleasure and avoid pain but this is not the highest activity of man. When reason rules desires and emotions this is in accordance with eternal law, which is the highest order.--eternal law commands us to use reason--
Ch. 9. What distinguishes the Wise from the Foolish?
The wise person is the one in whom reason rules and the foolish person is the one in whom reason does not rule. Superiority not in body, but in spirit. Reason and mind can be interchangeable, only the mind can use reason, and reason cannot be without mind. But, mind can be present in a person and that person not be rational, or wise.
Ch. 10. No one can force the Soul to be a slave to lust:
The virtuous mind cannot be forced to lust since it is stronger, armed with virtue. The Just cannot force another to be a slave to lust b/c it would weaken itself, corrupt itself, and not be strong enough to seduce the other. The superior always rules over the inferior or the weak because it is the perfection of the universe that forbids the weaker from ruling the stronger. We prefer virtue to vice, and the stronger the virtue the more noble it is.
Ch.11 and 12. A Soul merits Punishment when it Voluntarily submits to Lust: & The Lustful Suffer in the Present Life:
Whatever is equal or superior to the mind (ordered mind) is just so it cannot make the mind subject to lust so it follows that being lustful is due to free choice of the will. So punishment for sins is both just and justified since one is responsible for his actions since he has free will. Lustful people suffer in this life justly by having weariness and angst—long description on margin pages 77-78. Augustine establishes that there is free will since some people have their reason rule and cannot be forced to lust and others have their emotions and appetites ruling and are lustful. Since we can choose between good (rule of reason) and evil (lust) we have a will. And we must use this will to choose the good.
Ch.13. It is by Willing that we Live a Happy or an Unhappy Life:
It is by willing that we live a happy life by having the four cardinal virtues or live the unhappy life. Happy man is the lover of good will and who rejoices in true and sure goods. (A happy person is a wise person and the one who loves good will, so a wise person who has all the virtues loves good will).
The Four Cardinal Virtues:
- Prudence: knowledge of what should be desired and what should be avoided.
- Fortitude: the condition of the soul by which we despise all hardships and losses of things that have not been placed under our control.
- Temperance: Checks and controls the desire for those things that it is base to desire.
- Justice: according to which all men receive their due.
The one with the GOOD WILL will embrace JUSTICE as if there was nothing better, take delight in it, and be happy, because it can be thought of as encompassing the other virtues. A man cannot be just and be contrary to the others.
It is, however, a curious notion of justice, for Augustine says that Justice, like a mental or spiritual quality, cannot be taken away from a person against his or her will (I, 13)… Can we not rob a Just person of Justice? What sort of Justice must this be for this statement to be true?
Ch.14. Why are so few Men Happy when all want to be?
What does the temporal law command? What does the eternal law command? How do the domains of these laws relate to our personal happiness or unhappiness?
Notice the Platonic influence here—All desire the Happy Life, and it is by WILL that we merit a happy or unhappy life. No one KNOWINGLY wills unhappiness, but many are in a state of will where unhappiness results even though they do not want it. Thus, all people desire to be happy but most are unhappy since they do not will to live rightly.
Ch.15. The Love of Temporal things and the Love of eternal things.
Unhappiness stems from the lust after temporal things. —Compare with 13 on Justice and Freedom--
What sort of conception of JUSTICE does Augustine have?
- --God is just, punishes evil justly (ch.1).
- --But many (apostles) have been punished by (temporal) law for just deeds (ch.3).
- --Sometimes (war, defense) murder just & punishment by (temporal) law unjust (chs.3-4).
- --Unjust laws are not laws (ch.5).
- --Just laws can be made by unjust people (ch.5).
- --Good nations deserve democracy, Evil nations deserve tyranny (ch.6).
- --See ch.13: is there an ambiguity?
What sort of conception of FREEDOM does Augustine have?
--True freedom is for the Happy only, but there is a lesser freedom for the unhappy (ch.15).
The temporal law rules over those who are unhappy (although they are also subject to the eternal law) and the eternal law rules over those who are happy (they do not need to be ruled by the temporal law since they are already of good will) (ch.15).
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TEMPORAL LAW:
The temporal law commands: the BODY (with its goods, i.e. its health, senses, strength, and beauty), FREEDOM (not true freedom for those happy under eternal law, but the freedom accorded to those under temporal law who think they are free because they have no immediate master), FAMILY, STATE (the state itself, which is regarded like the parent of a large family), HONORS (including praise and popular favor), and finally, POSSESSIONS (things we own and can sell or give away) (I, 15, p.25). Temporal law is mainly about distributive justice, but does not need a long discussion here. The POWER of the Temporal Law is to take away these temporal things as punishment; it maintains order through FEAR (which establishes moderation), and it changes as the people it rules change. Thus, punishment is ONLY punishment if people have an inordinate love for what could be taken away from them. People can make good use or evil use of temporal things. The evil ones get entangled with things and the good use them rightly without getting caught up in them. So, do not blame the woman because of the existence of adulterers, the wine b/c of drunks, the food b/c gluttons; it’s not the things but people who make evil use of them. |
ETERNAL LAW:
A person who wills to live rightly loves eternal things in consistency with eternal law. So happiness and eternal things go together. Eternal law commands us to turn away from temporal things. External goods and temporal goods are good if they are means not ends. As we learned in chapter six, Eternal Law is also known as “Highest Reason;” it is “impressed on our minds;” “… it is that law by which it is just that everything be ordered in the highest degree” (I, 6, p.11). Cannot be changed, ought always to be obeyed, it is that through which evil people deserve a wretched life and the good people deserve and receive a good life (I, 14, p.23). |
Ch.16. Summary and Conclusion:
Thu, there is eternal law and temporal law that punish according to the willed direction of one’s love to eternal or temporal things (I, 16, pp.27-8). To do evil is to turn away from (neglect) eternal (unchanging, divine, truly everlasting) things and to desire temporal (uncertain and changing) things. It is having lust that is the cause of evil doing (sins).
Evodius raises the skeptical objection that if evil doing is due to free will why then did God give free will to humans? This is taken up in Book II.
Book II: Overview
Evodius’ Questions: Augustine’s Replies:
Why do we have free will if we use it to sin? God gave it so we may choose the good.
If freedom is good, why can we use it for evil? To answer, we must address three questions (below).
Why can we pervert freedom/will to do evil? Because w/o choice, we cannot will to live rightly.
Establishing the Topic and Summary:
Evodius: why did God give us free will if it is by that which we sin? Augustine: God gave us free will so that we may choose the Good. Evodius: if freedom is good, why can we use it for evil? Augustine: to answer, we must: 1) prove god’s existence, 2) determine if all good things are from god, and 3) examine possible goodness of free will. However, before actually proving God’s existence (which is only ever arguably done; it is more accurate to not call this a proof for God’s existence, but an under-mining of the ground from which an atheist can argue, that is, an undermining of the idea that there is nothing beyond the human mind), Augustine works through a “Pre-Proof,” which proves that we exist and identifies reason as the greatest “sub-lunar” gift; the “Proof,” then, concerns proving the existence/possibility of something greater than us. After the ‘proof,’ Augustine affirms that all good things come from God and that the freedom of the will, though it may be abused, is Good and Divinely Given, since without it no one may live rightly (thus, answering the second and third required questions, which also address Evodius’ last two questions).
Question 1: How is it manifest that God exists?
(Pre-Proof + Proof of God’s Existence, chs.3-15)
Why do we have free will if we use it to sin? God gave it so we may choose the good.
If freedom is good, why can we use it for evil? To answer, we must address three questions (below).
Why can we pervert freedom/will to do evil? Because w/o choice, we cannot will to live rightly.
- Chapter(s): Outline:
- 1-2 Establish topic
- 3 Three questions (methodology of Book II):
- How is it manifest that God exists? (Proof of God’s Existence)
- Do all things, insofar as they are good, come from God?
- Should Free Will be counted as one of those good things?
- 3-6 Pre-Proof
- 7-15 Proof
- 15-17 Second question addressed
- 18-20 Third question addressed
Establishing the Topic and Summary:
Evodius: why did God give us free will if it is by that which we sin? Augustine: God gave us free will so that we may choose the Good. Evodius: if freedom is good, why can we use it for evil? Augustine: to answer, we must: 1) prove god’s existence, 2) determine if all good things are from god, and 3) examine possible goodness of free will. However, before actually proving God’s existence (which is only ever arguably done; it is more accurate to not call this a proof for God’s existence, but an under-mining of the ground from which an atheist can argue, that is, an undermining of the idea that there is nothing beyond the human mind), Augustine works through a “Pre-Proof,” which proves that we exist and identifies reason as the greatest “sub-lunar” gift; the “Proof,” then, concerns proving the existence/possibility of something greater than us. After the ‘proof,’ Augustine affirms that all good things come from God and that the freedom of the will, though it may be abused, is Good and Divinely Given, since without it no one may live rightly (thus, answering the second and third required questions, which also address Evodius’ last two questions).
Question 1: How is it manifest that God exists?
(Pre-Proof + Proof of God’s Existence, chs.3-15)
Pre-Proof:
(1) Exist? Alive? Understand? (ch.3) (tripartite soul: nutritive, sensitive, rational)
Which is superior? Understanding
(2) Bodily Senses (ch.3)
What: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch
Object: color, sound, odor, flavor, smooth/hard/etc.
Object Perceived by One or Many? (preempts ‘Private or Public’ questions) Both
(3) Inner Sense (chs.3-4)
It is (because it determines what belongs to one or many senses); it receives data, presides over it; (differentiation between inner sense and reason) it is an agent of reason
(4) Existence, Life, Understanding (ch.5)
mapped onto
Bodily Senses, Inner Sense, Reason
Hierarchy established
Note criterion: “the judge is superior to the thing judged” (p.39).
(5) Is there anything Superior to Reason? (ch.6)
If there is, then: (a) It is God; or (b) Establishes possibility for God (i.e., highest is God).
(1) Exist? Alive? Understand? (ch.3) (tripartite soul: nutritive, sensitive, rational)
Which is superior? Understanding
(2) Bodily Senses (ch.3)
What: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch
Object: color, sound, odor, flavor, smooth/hard/etc.
Object Perceived by One or Many? (preempts ‘Private or Public’ questions) Both
(3) Inner Sense (chs.3-4)
It is (because it determines what belongs to one or many senses); it receives data, presides over it; (differentiation between inner sense and reason) it is an agent of reason
(4) Existence, Life, Understanding (ch.5)
mapped onto
Bodily Senses, Inner Sense, Reason
Hierarchy established
Note criterion: “the judge is superior to the thing judged” (p.39).
(5) Is there anything Superior to Reason? (ch.6)
If there is, then: (a) It is God; or (b) Establishes possibility for God (i.e., highest is God).
Proof:
(1) Senses, Inner Sense, Reason
- (A) All have them; Each has his/her own
- Sight & Hearing: share one object in activity of perceiving
- Taste & Smell: cannot share; perception consumes it
- Touch: share, but not at the same time
- (B) Public or Private?
- Smell & Hearing: Public
- Taste & Smell: Private
- Touch: Public
- (C) Is there anything public for Reason? The order and truth of number is present to all, each tries to grasp it him or herself.
(2) Number
- (A) Public or Private? Public (for Reason)
- (B) Is it adventitious? No, it is only rational
- (C) What is its source? The mind’s grasp of a public truth, common to all; we “see” it by an “inner light.”
(3) Wisdom
- (A) Public or Private? Public (there is one wisdom, even if many goods)
- (B) Defined: “the truth in which the highest good is discerned and acquired” (ch.9, p.47).
- (C) Acquire it: Stamped on the Mind a priori
- (D) Virtues: Part of Wisdom
- (E) Wisdom = Number à both are True (p.54).
(4) Truth
- (A) Public or Private? Public, but hidden
- (B) Wisdom and Number = True; True = One
- (C) Is Truth superior to Reason (p.54)?
(5) Truth Higher than Mind
- (A) Is truth higher than mind?
- If it were inferior: we would judge it, not use it as a tool/principle by which to judge whether something else is or is not in accord with it.
- If it were equal: it would be changeable
- It is superior: it is greater than mind, for we use it to judge and it doesn’t change.
- (B) Hence, Truth=God OR What’s more excellent than Truth=God (ch.14-15, pp.58-9).
Question 2: Do all things, insofar as they are good, come from God? (ch.15)
Seek: Fool versus Wise; “Four Causes” come from Number (p.61); Number in All; Therefore there can be no good that is not from God (p.64).
Question 3: Should Free Will be counted as one of those good things? (ch.18)
Yes; without it, we cannot live rightly (p.65).
Virtues: The Highest Goods cannot be used for evil } God creates
Powers of the Soul: The Intermediate Goods can be used for evil } and gives
Beauty of Material Things: The Lowest Goods can be used for evil }us all (ch.19)
When will cleaves to the unchangeable good in common (i.e., Truth) ~ Happy Life ~ Good for humans ~ Attain all the Goods (p.68).
Evil: is to turn from the unchangeable good, and therefore is justly punished; Evil is a lack (ch.20).
Summation of Book II:
Why did God give us free will if it is by that which we sin? God gave us free will so that we may choose the Good.
If Freedom is Good, why can we use it for evil? To answer, we must, 1) prove god’s existence, 2) determine if all good things are from god, 3) examine possible goodness of free will.
Before properly answering the question of a proof for God’s existence (which is only ever arguably done, for it is perhaps more accurate to not call this a proof for God’s existence, but an under-mining of the ground from which an atheist can argue, that is, an undermining of the idea that there is nothing beyond the human mind), Augustine works through what I call a “Pre-Proof,” which has five steps and takes us through the first six chapters of Book II. The “Pre-Proof” more accurately proves that we humans exist, while the “Proof” concerns proving the existence (possibility) of something greater than us.
1) Proof
2) All Good Things Come From God
3) Freedom of Will, though it may be abused, is Good and Divinely Given, Since w/o it No One May Live Rightly (i.e. is Free Will amongst the Good Things?)
Freedom of the Will is an Intermediate Good:
Virtues (unchangeable): Great Goods CanNOT be Used for Evil
Powers of Spirit: Intermediate Goods Can Be Used for Evil
Physical Beauty: Lowest Goods Can Be Used for Evil
Book II: Textual Analysis
Ch. 1:
Evodius [E]: Why did God give us free will if it is by that that we sin?
Augustine [A]: Do we know God gave it to us? HOW do we know this, by authority or by understanding?
A: How do we know that we have existence by God?
E: his response:
- (1) God is just.
- Justice punishes those within its jurisdiction.
- We are of God because God punishes and God is just.
- (2) Everything good is from God.
- Humans are good (because we can will rightly to be good).
- Humans are from God.
Ch. 2:
E: But why can we pervert will to do evil?
- Note the comparison between justice and will: “No one can use justice to live wickedly” (II, 2, 30). Justice is good. But, will can be used to live wickedly. Is free will good?
In Augustine’s response, note the adoption of Plato’s theory that learning is recollection: “… as Truth, the greatest teacher of all, teaches you within” (II, 2, 30).
A: Was it a good gift? Yes, absolutely, because God gave it and God is beyond reproach.
E: But, prove it … I believe this, but do not understand it.
A: Are you certain that God exists? (invocation of Psalm 14:1, 53:1: the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. This will be Saint Anselm’s starting place, as well, for a proof of God’s existence).
E: I believe it, I do not know it.
Note the continued discussion on the differences between belief and knowledge.
Ch. 3:
The order of questions over the rest of Book II:
- (1) How is it manifest that God exists?
- (2) Do all things, insofar as they are good, come from God?
- (3) Should free will be counted amongst these good things?
(1) God’s Existence … the build up to the proof:
Pre-proof I)
- Do you exist? Yes.
- Following consequently:
- You are alive.
- You understand.
- You are alive.
- Following consequently:
- Existence; life; understanding: which of these is superior?
- They answer this by working out the theory of the tripartite soul. Interestingly, while Augustine is thoroughly a Neoplatonist, his conception of the soul is closer to that of Aristotle’s than it is to Plato’s. The Aristotelian influence can be seen most clearly in the divisions of the soul, whereas the Platonic influence can be seen in the strong insistence upon the perfection achieved when there is control by reason over the other two parts.
- Hence … understanding (as a modification of reason) is deemed superior.
- They answer this by working out the theory of the tripartite soul. Interestingly, while Augustine is thoroughly a Neoplatonist, his conception of the soul is closer to that of Aristotle’s than it is to Plato’s. The Aristotelian influence can be seen most clearly in the divisions of the soul, whereas the Platonic influence can be seen in the strong insistence upon the perfection achieved when there is control by reason over the other two parts.
Pre-proof II)
Establish the Bodily Senses; determine to what each pertains; determine that some objects are perceived by one sense and some objects perceived by multiple senses:
- The bodily senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch.
- What pertains to each:
- Sight: all material things; refined to “color;”
- Hearing: sound
- Smell: odor
- Taste: flavor
- Touch: hard and soft, rough and smooth, and many such things.
- What pertains to each:
Pre-proof III)
Establish the existence of the Inner Sense (they establish its existence by determining it to be how it is determined that some things are perceived by more than one to a multitude of senses); it is not a bodily/external sense, but receives their data and presides over them; we understand it by reason, but it is not reason itself (for this inner senses exists, too, in “beasts”); they differentiate reason from inner sense; inner sense identified as an agent of reason …
The end of Ch. 3, all of Ch. 4 concern what senses and reason perceive … this could be considered part of the Pre-Proof IV, or an interlude working up to it …
Ch. 4:
they determine that Inner Sense also senses itself, as well as collecting the data of the external senses. Perception is not knowledge; animals have the inner sense as well as bodily senses. Thus:
- External senses: perceive the material
- Inner sense: perceives the data from the external senses and senses itself
- Reason: perceives everything and itself.
Ch. 5:
They say they are starting the proof, but this is still build up to the proof proper.
Pre-proof IV)
Augustine maps the delineation of existence, life, and understanding onto the delineation of bodily senses, inner sense, and reason.
They establish that the inner sense is a judge, and a judge is superior to a thing judged (II, 5, 39).
Ch. 6:
They assert (saying it needs no argument) that reason judges inner sense.
This, up to here, has established that reason is the highest of our faculties, and the greatest thing thus far enumerated.
Pre-proof V)
Augustine then asks if there is anything superior to understanding?
He then gets Evodius to concede that if there is anything superior to understanding, and thus, is superior to all things, then that thing is God (II, 6, 41).
Ch. 7: a more proper transition into the Proof of God’s Existence proper …
Proof I)
They then establish that they have the same sort of senses, but that each has his or her own external and then internal senses and then reason.
External Senses:
- Sight and hearing: can share the one object of perception in our activity of perceiving it;
- Taste and smell: cannot share the one object; our perception consumes the object;
- Touch: like sight and hearing, we can share the object, but not at the same time.
Private versus Public distinction has been broached and is now established:
- Sight, hearing, and touch are “public,” in that all can have them in common through our individual senses.
- Taste and smell are “private,” in that each consumes one’s own object in the act of this perception by each their own senses.
Ch. 8:
A: Is reason public or private? Is there anything that is public for reason?
E: yes, many things, e.g., “The order and truth of number is present to all who think, so that those who make calculations try to grasp it by their own reason and understanding” (II, 8, 44).
Proof II) (Number)
This starts an extensive elaboration of number and one …
- (note the similarities to Neo-Platonism’s use of Plato’s Timaeus and Pythagoras.)
Note: cf., II, 8, 44: ‘X is like an image of a visible thing’ … this is a form of speech Augustine uses (and Descartes in particular and others after steal) to designate what we would call an “idea.” It is a slightly limited definition of idea, however, hearkening ideas as like photographs that we store in our memories, which would then be like caverns of file cabinets full of these pictures …
Augustine wants to know if the idea of number is adventitious (comes from outside of us, through experience alone) or is wholly rational (comes through the light of the mind alone). Evodius suggests that number can be demonstrated empirically (e.g., one apple, two apples, three apples, etc.), but that mathematical operations are strictly rational (e.g., the basics of arithmetic, any mathematical principles).
Augustine pushes him to reject the bodily and see that all about number is only rational by arguing that the idea of number itself grounds us even counting things in the world, grounds even conceiving of multiple, because we must know ‘one’ in order to know ‘two,’ etc. We know order as fixed and unchangeable; this is a principle, a law, something only know, and not first adventitious.
So what is the source of the idea of number? The mind’s grasp of a truth that is beyond just it and common to all. “We see it by an inner light of which the bodily sense knows nothing” (II, 8, 46)--yes, he uses sensory language to describe knowing.
Proof III) (Wisdom)
Ch. 9:
What about Wisdom? Public or Private?
- Tangent: what is wisdom? Augustine: Wisdom is “… the truth in which the highest good is discerned and acquired” (II, 9, 47). (Note: Augustine adopts the Platonic sense of good and error … error is a mistake of the good.)
Comparison of Wisdom to Happiness.
Is there one wisdom, or many wisdoms?
- Almost tangent: many goods or highest good? Either way, Augustine argues, there is one wisdom to know the good, even if one wants to argue there are only ever many goods.
Ch. 10:
Wisdom = public
Virtues
Are virtues part of wisdom? Yes.
Ch. 11:
Wisdom and number > or = number is a part of wisdom or number is derived from wisdom
Ch. 12:
Truth = public, but hidden
Truth is superior to understanding (?) Judging; Yes
Ch. 13:
Truth is superior to mind and reason
(Platonic Ladder of Love)
Truth is God
Ch. 14:
Hierarchy of all to truth
Truth is superior to the mind
Ch. 15:
Truth = God … or … what is more excellent than truth = God
[The “Proof” is now over]
They move to the topic of the Wise and the Fool (i.e., on the importance of desire)
Ch. 16:
Seeking wisdom
Craftsman:
The Four Causes: Material, Formal, Efficient, and Final
All derive from Number
Creator of creatures --> to see eternal number
Number is in everything (this is not pantheistic, for God is also transcendent while immanent)
Ch. 17:
Changeable and Formable --> Must have a cause
Eternity
All Good comes from God
Ch. 18:
Question #3: Is Free Will Good? Yes! It is that without which one cannot live rightly.
Ch. 19:
The Hierarchy of the Goods
“Use” Free Will … Yes, by free will (consideration of memory)
Will is an intermediary good
Will’s connection to happiness
Ch. 20:
Evil as a lack